My monthly mortgage is $605 -- where are all these people getting $1350 to spend on rent when the economy is slow and no one has jobs?
I have a rental property in Upper Fells with one-bedroom apartments. I charge much less than $1237, but after reading this article, I will be charging increasing the rent by $100 at the one-year mark in the lease, and increasing it by $200 for the next tenant.
Clearly I don't know market rate very well.

Anonymous, you'll probably want to check online listing sites to see what other one-bedroom apartments in Upper Fells Point are going for. Baltimore is a neighborhood-by-neighborhood sort of place, and the one-bedroom average includes all sorts of rentals across the city.

Overly broad but still basically true:
One and two bedroom units have a greater tendency to be singles and dinks and because of that in nicer condition with nicer amenities and in nicer locations... whereas the 3BR places are almost always going to the less nice the less fancy and the more generally beat up family units.

This article only talks about the 4 blocks around the Inner Harbor and should not be confused with the rest of Baltimore City.

As a property manager in Baltimore City I can say that most of the rents are lower than they were 3 years ago because most of the tenants (poor people that live outside of the 4 block radius of the Inner Harbor) have lost their jobs, etc. There is no way that you can tell me that people are paying anything close to $1300 to live near North Avenue or Greenmount Avenue or S. Monroe Street.

I NEVER comment on blogs but wanted to stop some out of town investor, namely someone who has NO BUSINESS INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE, from making a big mistake by buying a property on N. Bentalou Street and expecting to get $1300 in rent for it when everyone else in the area is paying between $750 and $950.

Actually, UBS Property Management, the Cazoodle figures -- the $1,350 average and $1,200 median -- are for the city as a whole. It's the Delta numbers that focus on downtown and the Inner Harbor, as I noted.

But you'll see from the post that no figures are foolproof -- they all have downsides of one sort or another. So it's absolutely possible that the vagaries of what (and how) things are listed for rent is artificially pushing up the average and median.

For instance, average and median sale prices of homes vary during the year not just because of general market forces but because families tend to buy in the spring and summer, so more larger homes sell then. Rentals might see some of the same ups and downs from month to month. Cazoodle's dollar figures are for September only, though the year-over-year change figure is calculated January-September.

Folks, if you've seen rental statistics that you think are especially on target for this area, do let me know.

Is it possible to have a rental bubble? The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the median income for a household in the city during 2008 was $30,078, and the median income for a family at $48,216. How is it possible for the median household to be able to pay $1200 for median monthly rent? That is 48% of the pretax income! This makes no sense. This market needs to crash immediately. It is irrational to pay such a significant portion of your income on housing. I only hate that ultimately it will be the poor and middle class who will suffer the most after the crash. Wall Street always wins.

The rent... is too damn high.

That's a good question, Jaded. Some folks are getting roommates, of course, but others honestly are paying about half of their pre-tax income. (And still others aren't renting places that are as high as the median or average.)

I live in Laurel, PG county, and paid $865/mo for a studio and the kitchen was bigger than the living area

Here in Ga., Section 8 pays up to 1200 for qualified applicants.

When nobody is buying houses due to market conditions, people rent. When you have a higher supply of renters, then prices go up. Its an inverse relationship between house prices and rental prices. The higher rental prices go up, the more upward pressure there will be on housing prices. If housing prices don't "give" as they are now, then rental prices will see some very large gains.

despite the fact that i do not live in a luxurious complex and my building of four apt. units in mt. vernon has had no significant repairs, and barely anything that qualifies even as "upkeep", (it seems a chore to get them to keep the stairwell decently clean) they manage to say they have to raise my rent EVERY SINGLE YEAR when my lease comes up. and i'm good longtime tenant. it's ridiculous.

Who do you think is paying the rent ? U and the rest of the tax payers.

Isn't the upper limit for Section 8 for a 3 bedroom around 1,300?

I wonder if it has something to do with that?

Landlords push the price up to that level (because why not? If I knew I could get it out of them I would too) instead of market prices which would keep rent lower for everyone? Why fix up a place beyond what's required by law if you can just get $1,300ish in section 8?

Anonymous, Rent has nothing to do with how much mortgage you pay. It has to do with what the rental market will bear. If mortgage cost was the logic, should a landlord who paid off the house charge zero? Conversely, some landlords who bought during the bubble can't cover PITI costs with rent, because they can't get a tenant at that price. Check craigslist to see what comparable units are renting for in your area

How many have mice for that money. I have rented 6 apartments, and ony 2 didn't have mice.

Those figures are in line with what i've been experiencing in Baltimore Co., just north of the city line. The rent has jumped so much that it's getting unaffordable. Many people are getting no or small cost of living adjustments in salary, but cost of living itself, including housing, is zooming upwards. I wonder if personal debt is zooming up at the same rate, especially among poverty- and middle-class. Young people are graduating from college with massive debt from student loans. Our society has become financially unsustainable.

As as an owner and manager of rental property in the city, I can tell you that increase in rent is very much a reaction to increase in costs. The two biggest drivers are energy and property taxes.

The real estate assessments the city uses now for property taxes is for the most part crazily inflated and based on peak of bubble values. Combined with the already high city tax rate, which is 3 times the value of the county, most landlords are easily paying $10,000 MORE in taxes annually for that small, apartment building, than they did just a few years ago. City property taxes were a hot topic during this years elections, and I hope the Mayor will keep her word and really fix this issue.

Of course I don't need to explain the rising energy costs to anyone at this point. Just keep in mind that in many city buildings the landlord is paying not only the light in the hallways (which legally must be on 24 hours a day -- our legal system could learn from europeans and allow for more efficient solutions like timers and motions sensors -- but I digress) - your city landlord is probably also paying for your heat in the winter, water, and heating the water.

We do our best to stay efficient by installing and maintaining better windows, improving insulation, switching to modern water heaters and furnaces, and don't even mind doing my own vacuuming or painting (which I am sorry in the case of the other Mt Vernon resident does not seem to be the case). But ultimately we do have to pass our increases to the tenant to not deteriorate the quality of the residence we provide to our clients and neighbors. And as much as I dislike doing it, I think it's better to gradually increase a few percent annually , than to keep the rent the same for your loyal resident of 5 years, and then tell him you need to take a 20% jump - which at that time will not seem like a favor at all.

But I do agree that 9% is ridiculous for one year during a down economy where many are getting pay cuts, if they are lucky enough to have their job. And this is just another sign of a non-suistainable economy, which I hope all our politicians will really focus on fixing, instead of worrying about the next presidential election cycle.